Wound dressings are applied to wounds to protect them from the environment enabling them to heal. Such dressings generally consist of a gauze which is wrapped or applied to the wound. The gauze may have therapeutic additives which enable the wound to heal in a more efficient or healthy manner. The wound dressing must be maintained in place to protect the underlying wound. For this reason, the wound dressing is typically secured.
One typical wound dressing is an adhesive bandage type. An adhesive bandage type includes a strip of material, typically a plastic outer layer with an adhesive on the underside of the plastic outer layer. A gauze pad is disposed underneath the plastic outer layer on the same side as the adhesive. A removeable covering sheet covers the gauze pad and adhesive. Typically, the entire bandage is enclosed in a package that maintains the sterility of the bandage until opened. The bandage is then applied by removing the release liner, positioning the bandage over the wound and placing the adhesive onto the skin of the person. Such prepackaged adhesive bandages are known as Band-Aids®.
Adhesive bandages are typically individually pre-packaged and because of this are available only in predetermined sizes. Numerous dispensing devices are known for dispensing the pre-packaged adhesive bandages. One such dispensing device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,851,284 which disclosed an adhesive bandage dispensing arrangement which includes prepackaged adhesive bandages attached to a single roll. This patent also discloses an elongated bandage strip which comprises a continuous substrate coated with an adhesive to which a continuous gauze strip is adhered. A release liner covers the substrate and is coextensive with it in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction of the strip. The release liner protects the gauze strip from contamination. Other elongated bandage strips are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,843,011 and 6,362,288. These patents disclose self-adhesive bandage rolls. While suitable for their intended purpose, these disclosed rolls lack the ability to seal all around a wound thereby securing the wound dressing sufficiently around the wound while also preventing infection from possibly arising due to the wound not being enclosed from the ambient environment.
Accordingly, there is a need for a continuous self-adhesive bandage roll which may be utilized for dispensing a self-adhesive bandage which may be of a desirable length for covering a wound of a predetermined length while providing an adhesive portion enclosing a gauze portion for securing the self-adhesive bandage to a person while completely surrounding the wound.